Container refrigerator

ABSTRACT

A CONTAINER REFRIGERATOR IS DESCRIBED WHEREIN A REFRIGERATING MEMBER IS ATTACHED TO THE OUTSIDE SURFACE OF AN EXISTING CONTAINER. THE REFRIGERATING MEMBER IS SHOWN AS A TUBULAR MEMBER EITHER IN THE FORM OF A C-SHAPED RING MEMBER THAT CAN BE EXPANDED AND SNAPPED ONTO A CYLINDER OR A HELICALLY COILED TUBE THAT CAN BE EXPANDED AND SLID ONTO THE CONTAINER AND RELEASED TO BE HELD IN PLACE. THE REFRIGERATING MEMBER HOLDS A REFRIGERATING MEDIUM WHICH CAN BE VENTED FOR REDUCTION OF TEMPERATURE AND THE MEDIUM CAN BE EXPANDED BETWEEN PORTIONS OF THE REFRIGERATING MEMBER.

Jan. 12,1971 1 r E'IAL 3 3,553,91 cou'rAium REFRIGERATOR I Filed July29. 1968 INVENTORS ERIC cummz CHARLES 11.0mm

39 L 3432 BYMWM ATTORNEYS 3,553,976 CONTAINER REFRIGERATOR Eric Cumine,Lee Gardens, 33 Hysan Ave., Hong Kong,

and Charles H. Graham, Palo Alto, Calif.; said Graham assignor to saidCumine Filed July 29, 1968, Ser. No. 748,287 Int. Cl. FZSd 3/10 U.S. Cl.62294 16 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A container refrigerator isdescribed wherein a refrigerating member is attached to the outsidesurface of an existing container. The refrigerating member is shown as atubular member either in the form of a C-shaped ring member that can beexpanded and snapped onto a cylinder or a helically coiled tube that canbe expanded and slid onto the container and released to be held inplace. The refrigerating member holds a refrigerating medium which canbe vented for reduction of temperature and the medium can be expandedbetween portions of the refrigerating member.

The present invention is directed to a container refrigerator and moreparticularly to a refrigerator for existing containers to berefrigerated, typically cylindrical containers.

Often, refrigeration for materials is desired in a remote location whererefrigeration is unavailable. In the past, specifically designed dualchamber containers have been constructed wherein a medium to berefrigerated is contained within one of the chambers and a refrigeratingmedium in the other. However, these structures are not only diflicultand expensive to produce, but are not adapted to refrigerate existingcontainers.

Broadly stated, the present invention is directed to a containerrefrigerator for a hollow container including a refrigerating membercontaining a refrigerating medium and means for attaching therefrigerating member to the outside surface of an existing container.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the re frigerating member isa substantially circular tubular member which is originally formed to aradius less than that of the container to be refrigerated and the memberis expandable to fit onto and hold itself onto the outside surface ofthe member to be refrigerated. Vent means are provided for venting therefrigerating medium from the tubular member to refrigerate thesurrounded container and thus the material contained therein.

The container refrigerator in accordance with this invention is easilymanufactured and easily assembled onto an existing container of avariety of configurations. The most common configuration and one towhich the refrigerating member is most readily formed is a cylinder.Cylindrical containers are used for holding various types of materialand, in particular, fluids such as water, cola and beer and these fluidsare particularly well adapted for refrigeration utilizing the presentinvention.

In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention, thetubular member is formed into a C-shaped ring member at leastsemi-circular in shape but less than a complete 360 so that forexpansion onto a cylindrical container of radius larger than theoriginal formed radius of the tubular member, the tubular member can beexpanded to enlarge the gap between the ends thereof and snapped ontoand retained on the container by the spring action of the tubularmember. The tubular member is provided with means for venting arefrigeration medium such as Freon 12 therefrom to refrigerate thetubular member, the surrounded container and the United States Patentice Patented Jan. 12, 1971 fluids within the container. This containerrefrigerator is extremely simple to fabricate for application tocontainers of various sizes and is easily attached to the container andoperated. The tubular member can be formed merely by pinching off endsof a tube of desired crosssectional configuration and bending the tubeto a radius slightly less than that of the smallest cylindricalcontainer to which the container refrigerator is to be applied. Then bysimply expanding the tubular member slightly larger than the diameter ofa given cylindrical container, the member can be slid over the flangedends of the container and the expanding force released so that thetubular member is held onto the outside surface of the container.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, thetubular member is formed in the shape of a helical coil which can beexpanded radially outwardly to fit over the end of a cylindricalcontainer. The tubular coil can be formed in generally the same manneras the tubular C-shaped member and wound in coil form. For expansion,the turns of the coil can be expanded sliding against one another as thecoil is enlarged and then contracting on the container. Alternatively,the coil can be wound with sufiicient space between turns such thataxial compression of the coil causing adjacent turns to come intocontact with one another provides sufficient enlargement of the radiusof the coil so that a cylindrical container can be slidably insertedaxially within the coil and the axial compression force released to snapthe coil onto the cylindrical container.

In accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention,the refrigerating member is formed in two separate tubular portions, onefor containing the refrigerating medium and one to serve as an expansionchamber for the medium. In accordance with this aspect of the presentinvention, both the C-shaped and helical members described above caninclude dual chambers. In accordance with this aspect of the presentinvention, the helical refrigerating member can take the form of a dualhelix structure with the expansion chamber in the form of a helicallycoiled tubular member provided at one end with means for venting therefrigerating medium expanded therewithin and connected at the oppositeend to a larger diameter helically coiled tubular member containing therefrigerating medium. These coiled helices can be expanded to fit over afluid container in the same manner as the other embodiments of thisinvention.

In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, therefrigerating members are formed or secured to the container beingrefrigerated in such a way that during operation a temperature gradientis estab lished within the container so that convection currents areestablished therewithin for optimum heat transfer between the mediumbeing refrigerated and the refrigerating member.

In the case of the C-shaped ring member, the temperature gradient can beestablished by proper positioning of the refrigerating member on thecontainer being refrigerated. Also, the C-shaped member and thehelically coiled refrigerating member can be constructed such that therefrigerating medium is vented to a greater extent at one portion of themember so that the temperature gradient is established along the lengthof the helix. In the case of the double coiled helical refrigeratingstructure, lower temperatures will be estabished in the region of theexpansion chamber tubing wherein the refrigerating medium expands intothe tubing from the medium reservoir in the outer of the two coiledhelices.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent whenreading the following description and referring to the accompanyingdrawing in which similar characters of reference represent correspondingparts in each of the several views.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerating assembly in accordancewith one aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the structure shown in FIG. 1 takenalong line 22 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational sectional view of an alternativeconstruction of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of the structureshown in FIG. 3 with the venting assembly for the refrigerating mediumpartially open; and

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view, partially broken away, of stillanother embodiment of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawing, with particular reference to FIGS. 1 and2, there is shown a container refrigerating assembly for refrigerationof a container 6 in the form of a hollow cylinder 7 with a closed topand bottom 8 and 9, respectively. While the present invention isdirected to a refrigerating assembly for refrigerating various differentmaterials in various different shaped containers, the most practicalapplication of the invention to the greatest number of existingcontainers is for the refrigeration of materials within hollow cylinderssuch as cans, bottles and the like. The widest practical application isfor the refrigeration of fluids such as water, cola and/ or beer.However, the material can be any of a variety of fluids, either liquidor gaseous, or solids.

Other shapes for the container to be refrigerated include, for example,conical cup-shaped members and containers of rectangular cross-sectionor the like. While the containers to be described and illustrated areclosed, they can be open topped or in a variety of open or closedconditions. Additionally, while the container can be made of anymaterial, the present invention operates best with containers made ofmaterials with good heat conductivity so that most efficient use of therefrigerating medium available can be made.

In the refrigerating assembly illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, a tubularrefrigerating member 11, typically metallic, such as aluminum, isprovided with the tubular portion formed to a substantially circularconfiguration. The member 11 can be formed of rectangular or ovalcrosssection or circular cross-section preferably squeezed to ovalcross-section to provide maximum contact between the inside wall surfaceof the member 11 and the cylindrical surface 7 of the container 6. Achamber to contain a refrigerating medium such as Freon 12 isestablished by closing the ends 12 and 13 of the tubular member 11 suchas by pinching off the tubing with a sealing tool after therefrigerating medium has been charged therein.

In order to conveniently secure the refrigerating member 11 of FIGS. 1and 2 to the container 6, the member 11 is formed at least semi-circularbut less than a complete circle to provide a gap between the ends 12 and13 of the tubular member 11.

The tubular refrigerating member 11 is formed to a radius less than theradius of the containers to which it will be applied so that byexpanding the member 11 from its original C-shaped configuration toenlarge the radius of the C-shaped configuration, the member 11 can beslidably passed over the end of the container 16 to a central portion ofthe container and there the expanding forces relieved so that thetubular member snaps into place on the sidewalls 7 of the container 6and is held there by the spring action of the tubular member.

The tubular member is charged with the refrigerating medium in a mannerconventional for charging of aerosol containers and is provided withmeans for venting the pressurized refrigerating medium. The manner ofventing the refrigerating medium can take a number of different formseither primarily for cooling of the refrigerating member 11 and thencooling of the container 6 by conduction or such cooling in combinationwith direction of the vented refrigerating medium against the surfacesof the container 6 or into an expansion chamber in contact with thecontainer.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, tubular refrigeratingmember 11 is provided with a vent tab 15 which incorporates a pull ringto enable the user to grasp the tab and a scored portion 16 of thetubing which is removed as the vent tab 15 is pulled to provide anopening along the tubular member for escape of the refrigerating medium.As the refrigerating medium expands and escapes from the tubular member11, the member 11 is cooled and the contents of container 6 cooled byconduction.

By positioning the tubular member centrally of the container,temperature gradients are established along the cylindrical surface 7 ofthe container 6 and when the materials being refrigerated is a fluidconduction currents are thereby established within the container forheat exchange between the container walls and the medium and thuscooling of the medium.

A modification of the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. '1 and 2 is shownin FIG. 3 which illustrates a portion of a tubular member 11' and thecylindrical wall 7 of the container. In this embodiment, the top surface17 of the tubular member 11 is inclined at an angle from theperpendicular toward the cylindrical surface 7 of the container 6. Thevent structure includes a plurality of apertures 18 provided in this topsurface 17 and with their axes intersecting the cylindrical surface 7 ofthe container 6. A cover sealing strip 19 is provided on the top surface17 over the apertures 18 and sealing the apertures 18 against escape ofthe pressurized refrigerating medium. This cover sealing strip 19 isremovable from the tubular member 11 by a pull tab (not shown) so thatthe refrigerating medium can escape through apertures 18. Due to thedirection of the apertures 18, the refrigerating medium is directedalong the cylindrical wall 7 of the container 6 as the medium escapesfrom the tubular member 11. In this manner, the refrigerating medium notonly cools the tubular member 11 during venting for conduction coolingof the cylindrical surface 7 and the medium to be refrigerated, but alsothe expanded and cooled refrigerating medium is directed against thewall 7 for cooling thereof and the medium contained therein by heatexchange.

The size of the vent for the escape of the refrigerating medium from thetubular members 11 and 11' is selected in accordance with the size ofthe refrigerating member 11, the typical fluid container 6 to which itwill be applied and the normal environmental conditions under which theinvention will be utilized. Thus, in tropical climates greaterrefrigeration will be required for a given material to be refrigeratedin a specific container than in more temperate climates or environments.In any event, the apertures and vent assembly for the refrigeratingmember should be designed for a controlled release of the refrigeratingmedium over a period of time so that the container is not cooled toofast. It has been found that gradual heat exchange between therefrigerating member and the material being refrigerated and associatedproduction of convection currents in fluid materials for eflicient heatexchange will produce the desired results. If the release of therefrigerating medium is too rapid, it is possible to freeze a fluidmaterial being refrigerated with the attendant loss of eflicient heatexchange as well as possible undesired effects on the material beingrefrigerated. Thus, where cylindrical cans of beer have beenrefrigerated with this invention, too rapid release of refrigeratingmedium can result in freezing a portion of the beer at the containersurface immediately adjacent the refrigerating member with attendantundesired taste effects on the beer.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown another embodiment of thepresent invention and wherein the refrigerating assembly includes ahelically coiled tubular member 21 as the refrigerating member with, thecoiled member closed at its ends, pressurized with a refrigeratingmedium and provided with a venting assembly for releasing therefrigerating medium. The venting assembly illustrated includes aplurality of'minute apertures 22 which are initially closed by sealingtips 23 such as rubber which are attached to a removal strip 24. Removalof strip 24 pulls the closure tips 23 from the apertures 22 and allowsventing of the refrigerating medium. The refrigerating medium can bedirected onto the'container or into an auxiliary cooling chamber wheremost efiicient use can be made of the refrigerating characteristics ofthe medium.

The helical tubing 21 can be made, by forming the helical coil 21initially to a radius less than the radius of the typical container towhich. the coil is to be applied. Thus, for expansion, the turns of thecoil can be expanded, sliding against one another as the coil isenlarged, and then contracted upon the container. Alternatively. if thecoil is formed with sufficient space between turns, the coil can beaxially compressed causing adjacent turns to come into contact with oneanother and providing sufiicient enlargement of the radius of the coilso that a cylindrical container can be slidably inserted axially withinthe coil and the axial compression released to snap the coil onto thecylindrical container.

In the embodiments illustrated above wherein a single chamber isillustrated and the refrigerating medium vented directly to atmospheretherefrom, the refrigerating medium can boil off relatively rap-idlyfrom the container with consequent low efficient use of therefrigerating characteristics of the medium. As mentioned above, a dualchamber can be utilized for more efficient operation and such a'dualchamber is illustrated in FIG. 6.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated another embodiment of thepresent invention and wherein a dual chamber construction is utilizedwith the refrigerating medium contained substantially in a firstcontainer and expanded into the second container which is in contactwith the surface of the container being refrigerated for efficient useof the refrigerating characteristics of the refrigerating medium.

As shown in FIG. 6, the refrigerating assembly 30 includes a first orinner helical wound tubular heat exchanger coil or chamber 31 sealed atits lower end 32,

such as with a crimp seal 33, and provided with a score 34 adjacent theseal 33 so that the tubular member 31 can be opened by snapping thesealed end of the tube off at the score 34. The helical coil is woundand assembled onto the container 6 in a manner similar to the coildescribed above with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. The upper end 34 ofcoil 31 is connected to one end of an outer helically wound, tubular,coolant storage coil or chamber 35, such as by a wage seal 36, and witha press fit orifice 37 contained in the end of the outside chamber 35immediately adjacent the connection into inside chamber 3-1. The otherend of the outer chamber 35 is sealed such as with a crimped seal 38 tocontain a charge of refrigerating medium such as Freon 12 underpressure. Outer chamber 35 is provided with a safety rupture score 39such that the tubing 35 will rupture at the score in the event thatdangerously high pressures should build up within the tubing.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6, the refrigerating assembly 30is charged with refrigerating medium by connecting of the end of theouter tubing or coolant storage vessel 35 to a source of a refrigeratingmedium with the outer chamber 35 sealably connected to the inner chamber31 and the lower end of the inner chamber open. The outer chamber 35 isthen filled with refrigerant until refrigerant begins to escape throughthe end 32. Then the end 32 is sealed, such as with a crimp seal 33, andthe source of refrigerant subsequently valved off and the outer chamber35 sealed off such as with the crimp seal 38. The pressure in the insideand outside chambers 31 and 35 will equalize and during normal handlingof the refrigerating assembly, until use, the refrigerating medium willremain in the outside storage chamber 35.

The refrigerating assembly 30 can be mounted onto the container 6 inmuch the same manner as described for the assembly 20 in FIG. 4.

When the refrigerating assembly illustrated in FIG. 6 is used, the lowerend of the inside tubular member 31 is broken off along the score 33 andwith the reduction in pressure in the inside chamber, the refrigeratingmedium will boil off from the outside chamber 35 into the inside chamber33 through the press fit orifice 37. The inside chamber 31 'will then becooled by the refrigerating medium and the container 6' cooled byconduction. The construction of this embodiment of the present inventionnot only is more efiicient than the other constructions due to the useof the expansion chamber 31 into which the refrigerating medium isinitially expanded, but also by reason of the fact that the storagechamber surrounds the expansion chamber and is cooled by contact withthe otuside surface of the storage chamber for more efiicientutilization of the cooling capabilities of the inside chamber.

A normal sized can of beer can be satisfactorily cooled by thisinvention utilizing 3-5 ounces of Freon 12. By Way of example, acontainer refrigerator for a 12 ounce beer can constructed in the manneras illustrated in FIG. 6 with inch diameter aluminum tubing and 3 ouncesof Freon cools a beer can 20 F. from normal room temperature. Thisoperation will take place with the pressure in the outside chamber thatwill reach about 160 p.s.i. at F. and during operation with pressuredownstream of the orifice 37 approximately 4 to 10 p.s.i. due to theorifice 37 and the slight constriction at the outlet of coil 31. Muchlower temperatures can be achieved by reducing the downstream pressuresuch as by reducing the size of the orifice but under certain conditionsthis can result in an undesirably long cooling period. The presentinvention is designed to provide a relatively rapid cooling such as afraction of a minute up to several minutes depending upon existingconditions.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail byway of illustration and example for purposes of clarity ofunderstanding, it is understood that certain changes and modificationsmay be practiced within the spirit of the invention as limited only bythe scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A container refrigerating assembly comprising a container adapted tocontain a material to be refrigerated, a refrigerating member, arefrigerating medium contained solely with said member for refrigeratingthe material to be refrigerated, means for venting said refrigeratingme- .dium to atmosphere, and means for securing said refrigeratingmember to the outside surface of said container whereby as saidrefrigerating medium is released from said refrigerating member therefrigerating member, container and material are cooled.

2. The refrigerating assembly in accordance with claim 1 wherein saidcontainer is a hollow cylinder and said refrigerating member is tubularencircling more than half the circumference of said container.

3. The refrigerating assembly in accordance with claim 2 wherein thewalls of said tubular member are formed to a circular configuration of adiameter less than the diameter of said container and springablyexpanded to fit onto the cylindrical surface of said container and holdin place there.

4. The assembly of claim 3 wherein said tubular member extends less than360 around said cylindrical container and the member can be expanded toenlarge the gap between the ends thereof to fit over the ends of thecontainer.

5. The assembly of claim 3 wherein said tubular member is wound in theshape of a helical coil with said coil expandable radially outwardly tofit onto said container.

6. The assembly in accordance with claim wherein said tubular memberincludes a first helically coiled portion adjacent the surface of saidcontainer and a second helically coiled portion surrounding said firstportion and connected to one end of said first portion and means forventing said refrigerating medium from the other end of said firstportion.

7. The assembly of claim 1 wherein said refrigerating member includesmeans for venting said refrigerating medium therefrom and establishmentof a temperature gradient along the surface of said container toestablish convection currents in the material to be refrigerated.

8. A refrigerated container assembly comprising, in combination: ahollow cylindrical container adapted to contain a fluid to berefrigerated, a substantially circular tubular refrigerating membersubstantially encircling said container, a refrigerating medium solelyin said member for refrigerating fluid in said container, and means forventing said refrigerating medium to atmosphere.

9. The assembly of claim 7 wherein said tubular refrigeration member isformed to a diameter less than the diameter of said container andspringable to a diameter greater than the diameter of said container forslidable insertion onto said container over an end thereof.

10. The assembly of claim 9 wherein said refrigeration member isC-shaped and extends around said container less than 360.

11. The assembly of claim 10 wherein said refrigeration member ishelically coiled around said container.

12. The assembly of claim 8 wherein said medium is an expandablerefrigerating gas and said refrigeration member includes means forventing said gas to atmosphere.

13. A refrigeration assembly comprising a tubular refrigeration membercoiled at least into a semi-circle of given radius and springable to aposition of greater radius, a refrigeration medium contained solelywithin said member and means for venting said refrigerating medium toatmosphere whereby said member can be springably 8 expanded and fittedonto the outside surface of a container and held there by contractionforces for refrigeration of the container and the contents thereof uponrelease of said medium.

14. A container refrigerating assembly adapted to refrigerate a materialin an existing container comprising a refrigerating member includingmeans defining a first heat exchange chamber and means defining a secondrefrigerant storage chamber and means defining an orifice connectingsaid chambers, a refrigerating medium contained within said chamberssubstantially within said storage chamber means for venting saidrefrigerating medium to atmosphere and means for securing saidrefrigerating chamber means to the member with the first chamber meansin contact with the surface of the container for refrigeration of thematerial.

15. The container refrigerating assembly in accordance with claim 14wherein said first and second chamber means are tubular members with thesecond storage chamber means connected to one end of said first chambermeans with said orifice located substantially at the connection betweensaid chambers and means for venting the refrigeration medium from saidchamber means through the other end of said first chamber means.

16. The container refrigerating assembly in accordance with claim 15wherein said tubular chambers are formed in the shape of helices withsaid second chamber means surrounding said first chamber means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,059,297 11/1936 Widman l462,625,804- 1/ 1953 Patch --46 3,335,789 8/1967 Raskin 165-169 3,452,5557/1969 Thurman l6546 WILLIAM J. WYE, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

